Radius Precision Color *Pro XP* BIOS image?

[willmurray461]

I recently found a rebadged Radius PrecisionColor Pro XP called the "LapisColor 24x Nubus." I'd like to swap in an original Radius ROM. Anyone have the image file for the Radius PrecisionColor Pro XP? I know somebody already uploaded the "non-Pro" version, but I'm looking for the "Pro" version.

 

[eharmon]

I don't think there was a non-Pro XP...they're confusingly labelled on the board. Is it a 7" board? IIRC all the non-Pros were 12".

Realistically it doesn't hurt to try the Pro ROM. In most worst case scenarios it just doesn't do anything.

Interesting there was a Lapis-badged version. I've seen evidence of a NEC rebadge...didn't know Lapis was in the business of rebadging.

 

[willmurray461]

The other thread I read showed a ROM dumped from a 12" XP. Mine is the 7" one. Someone in that thread tried to use the 12" ROM in their 7" card and it didn't work, though they weren't sure if their card was faulty.

 

[eharmon]

The other thread I read showed a ROM dumped from a 12" XP. Mine is the 7" one. Someone in that thread tried to use the 12" ROM in their 7" card and it didn't work, though they weren't sure if their card was faulty.

Try a Pro X or Pro XK ROM, they should be hardware compatible across the 7", I think.

 

[olePigeon]

Does anyone have a link to all the Radius ROMs plus the Apple 24AC ROM?

 

[willmurray461]

Does anyone have a link to all the Radius ROMs plus the Apple 24AC ROM?

I recently bought a computer with a 24AC (or at least I think it's an AC, its hard to tell from the pictures so it might also be an X or XK but it has a red PCB). Once it arrives, I'll dump the ROM.

 

[olePigeon]

@willmurray461 Ah, thanks. Although I'm pretty sure it's already been dumped. I was wondering if someone had all the ROMs stored someplace. I just recently picked up a ROM programmer (for arcade ROMs), so I can finally dump and program other ROMs. I was keen on installing the Apple ROM on my Radius, remove the need for any drivers.

 

[finkmac]

it's probably in the mame romset

 

[willmurray461]

Turns out the card I bought was a Radius Precision Color Pro 24XK. Here's a dump of the ROM (2.0), in case anyone's interested. I also attached the Lapis ROM.

As far as I can tell, the Apple AC card, ProX, and ProXK are all almost identical. They all have the same 3MB of VRAM and support the same resolutions.

The only difference I could find is that it looks like the X and AC support up to 75Hz in 1024x768, whereas the XK only does 60Hz. This makes sense as the X and AC cards have a 110MHz rated RAMDAC, whereas the XK only has an 80MHz rated one. The AC card also seems to have EDO ram, whereas the XK has FPM ram. The X seems to come in both varieties, with earlier cards having FPM and later ones having EDO (at least, from my observations). Then again, I'm not sure if any of the cards actually take advantage of EDO, since EDO parts can often be used in FPM designs and they might have been installed simply because EDO RAMs eventually became cheaper/easier to find.

 

[eharmon]

Turns out the card I bought was a Radius Precision Color Pro 24XK. Here's a dump of the ROM (2.0), in case anyone's interested. I also attached the Lapis ROM.

As far as I can tell, the Apple AC card, ProX, and ProXK are all almost identical. They all have the same 3MB of VRAM and support the same resolutions.

The only difference I could find is that it looks like the X and AC support up to 75Hz in 1024x768, whereas the XK only does 60Hz. This makes sense as the X and AC cards have a 110MHz rated RAMDAC, whereas the XK only has an 80MHz rated one. The AC card also seems to have EDO ram, whereas the XK has FPM ram. The X seems to come in both varieties, with earlier cards having FPM and later ones having EDO (at least, from my observations). Then again, I'm not sure if any of the cards actually take advantage of EDO, since EDO parts can often be used in FPM designs and they might have been installed simply because EDO RAMs eventually became cheaper/easier to find.

21-Dec-93 Firmware by Steve Lemke, Radius Inc.

That puts it before the 2.0 firmware for the Radius versions, and it seems to have fewer video modes at a glance, so a ROM swap is a definite upgrade.

 

[willmurray461]

By the way, does anyone know if there's a certain way you're supposed to view these ROM files? When using a standard hex editor, I can't find any copyright strings. Do Macintosh ROMs use some special encoding, or does it have to do with something like endianness?

 

[eharmon]

By the way, does anyone know if there's a certain way you're supposed to view these ROM files? When using a standard hex editor, I can't find any copyright strings. Do Macintosh ROMs use some special encoding, or does it have to do with something like endianness?

Radius cards are generally reversed and xor'd with 0xFF on the EPROM. Undo that and you can make sense of them.

This can be different on each card, in another thread folks have been discussing the Turbo 040's extra complicated scrambling to further prevent reverse engineering, for example. But Radius mostly stuck with the same technique.

 

[willmurray461]

Interesting...

In case anyone finds it useful, I wrote a small python script that automates this process so you can get a readable ROM.

 

[olePigeon]

@willmurray461 Well with no one posting links, would you mind posting the AC ROM?

 

[willmurray461]

I don't have the AC ROM. The card I bought turned out to be an XK, for which I posted the ROM.

Which card do you have that wants an AC ROM? Does your card have the 110MHz RAMDAC + EDO RAM?

 

[olePigeon]

I forgot which one I have, but it's the original Radius version of the card that Apple licensed. I was going to swap the ROMs so I wouldn't need additional drivers.

 

[slomacuser]

Check this thread —> https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?thr...sioncolor-pro-24x-rom-firmware-upgrade.40524/

 

[olePigeon]

@slomacuser Unless I missed it, it's everything except the 24AC. Thank you anyway. Archiving ROMs for cards I have.

 

[slomacuser]

Ask @Phipli

 

[eharmon]

Oh hey, the non-Pro XP: https://www.ebay.com/itm/235874792062

Guess it does exist. Is that only 10” though?